


\ 'J 



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NAUGURAL AdDI^ESS 



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I^RESIDEISTT 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY, 



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OCTOBER 9, 1877. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
W. M. STUART, PRINTER^ 

1877. 






(^IT 



IISrAUGUBAL ADDRESS. 



The peculiarity of the occasion calls for an appropriate theme, 
and I therefore invite your attention to The Relation of the 
Higher Education to a True Civilization, and to the Elevation 
of a Depressed Race. 

A university fully developed, fitly manned, and adequately 
endowed is the ripest product of modern civilization. It is 
at once the outgrowth, the sign, and the guaranty of the highest 
culture of a land. Sending its roots deep into the soil of past 
generations, and deriving no small part of its vitalit}^ from the 
researches and the renown of scholars who have ceased from 
earthly studies and gone to wider fields of thought, it also draws 
to itself the life-giving influences of the air and light of con- 
temporaneous ability and learning. Covering in its various de- 
partments, academic training, ancient and modern literature, 
history, philology, natural science, philosophy, art, medicine, 
law and theology, it ranges over all the past, while possessing the 
wide present, and touches human thought and action at every 
possible point. The name itself stands for the idea of complete- 
ness. Hence since the early part of the twelfth century, Avhen 
the institutions at Bologna and Paris emerge from their obscure 
beginnings, the names of the universities suggest the course of 
European history and the glory of their respective lands. Speak 
to a man of culture of historical France, and by the side of her 
military fame he will put the renown of her former university 
of Paris, with its theological college of the Sorbonne, whose 
doctors at one time decided the grave disputes of all Europe, 
and feared not to confront and oppose the infallible Pope himself. 
Name modern Italy, and the universities of Bologna and Padua, 
of Ferrara and Pisa, of Naples and Palermo, of Perrugia and 
Parma, with their illustrious compeers, rush at once into thought. 
German}^ — I had almost said, what is it, but the product of the 
centuries of instructions e-iven within the universities of Heidel- 



berg, Leipsic, "Wlirtzbur^, Freiburg, Tubingen, Halle, Gottin- 
gen, and more modern institutions? The influential thinking 
of G-reat Britain has been done bv the men trained at Cam- 
bridge and Oxford, at St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh. 
While our own land has had little but the superabounding 
name of university, having developed in the place gymnasia, 
under the title of colleges, yet these, with the higher professional 
schools, have not been a wholly inadequate substitute, and 
throughout our brief history they have furnished a large pro- 
portion of the men who have shaped and administered our 
national affairs. By the necessity of the case, a university, v ith 
its several co-ordinate faculties under a common organization, 
implies variety of knowledge with unity of object, or wide and 
increasing learning devoted to the advancement of country and 
mankind. It could exist only as it fell heir to the treasures of 
the buried past; it could have a right to continue to be, only 
as it sought to transmit these, with all possible enrichment, to 
the fast-coming future, and to use them in uplifting the race 
from the limitations and degradations of ignorance. Slow of 
growth is such an institution, and it must draw its resources 
from many quarters, making friends of all lovers of humanity, 
rejoicing in the smile of the State, and privileged with the 
blessing of the Church. 

In the Old World such institutions received their earliest 
inspiration from the Church, springing from the scholastic dis- 
cussions of the middle ages; but they have also owed their pros- 
perity largely to the State, which gave them incorporation and 
revenues, and retained a quite positive control. It was the glory 
of a king or emperor, to found a university and to build a 
cathedral. In this New World, the higher institutions of learn- 
ing have principally sprung from and been supported by private 
generosity, receiving from the State simply legal recognition iu 
the form of a charter, with an occasional gift of money or land. 
It is thus that the colleges of New England and of the Middle 
States were established. The plan of a State University, under 
direct legislative control, and supported by the public treasury, 
which has been attempted at the South and West, has been a 



noticeable success in but a single instance, and then at tbe ex- 
pense of much personal and political contention. The prefer- 
ence for private control has arisen from a general jealousy of 
the State, and from the American principle of separating it 
from everything which concerns religion. A true university 
must embrace a department of Theology — a fact which, under 
our American system, at once cuts it ofl'from State support and 
control, or compels it to exist in a matilated condition, which 
belies its name; as if a sculptor should carve from the marble 
an Apollo lacking a limb, or, I might rather say, lacking a 
head ! Not only so, but it may be predicted that, in the prog- 
ress of philosophic, scientific, and theologic discussion, as lines 
shall be more narrowly drawn, and as differing consciences shall 
come into action. State Universities will find themselves in 
trouble, even without a theological department; for religion 
must be taught, or implied, or denied, in all the higher educa- 
tion ; because its principles run everywhither, and touch human 
thought and life universally. It is simply impossible to impart 
a knowledge of philosophy, or history, or classical literature, or 
modern literature, as these should be studied in university- 
courses, and in the spirit of a true scholarship, without canvass- 
ing points which involve religious dift'erences, as between de- 
nominations of Christians, especially Protestants and Romanists, 
and as between Christians and the deniers of a supernatural 
religion. To preserve logical consistency and to avoid serious 
practical difficulty, it would appear necessary for the State ulti- 
mately to withdraw entirely from the field of the higher educa- 
tion, and to confine itself to the secularized common s3hool 
system for imparting to the masses a knowledge of the needful 
primary branches. 

But the complete university-training is essential to the de- 
velopment of any race and nation, and must be a factor in the 
highest civilization. Every people grows to it wdien rising from 
barbarism, and then grows by it in the development of the 
national life. Hence we not only note that the progress of the 
civilization of modern Europe aijd that of its universities is a 
parallel progress, but that, at a certain stage of the advancement 



6 

of all races, whom we are striving to elevate, the demand is in- 
evitably made for the establishment of institutions for the higher 
education. This is found to be necessary to give permanence 
to the lower stages, as well as to continue the upward movement. 
Hence, where Christian missions have reached a sufficient de- 
velopment, they found a college, as a natural result. The 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions have 
seen five such institutions grow up on tljeir field within twenty 
years; which will soon be followed by as many more, till amid 
the benighted races a Christian civilization shall be established 
upon a firm basis. For every such institution is both reservoir 
and fountain. It collects from surrounding springs of thought 
and science whatever tends to human elevatioi:, and it difi'uses 
this by numberless streams through all classes of societ_y. It is 
easy and instructive to trace this relation of the University to 
the development and elevation of the people, which, liowever, 
we can do but briefly at this time. 

First of all, it establishes the standard of national culture. 
The " high-water mark" of intellectual advancement is fixed by 
the university-education, which thus measures and defines the 
civilization of the people. There are distinct types of mental cul- 
ture, which are represented by the literati of the various lands, 
who have their respective standards of learning. Compare, in 
this respect, the higher education of tlie Chinese, of the Mo- 
hammedan nations, and of Europe. Each represents a marked 
advance of the human mind, under such masters as Confucius, 
Mohammed and Jesus; and in each case the special form of 
civilization has crystalized m the superior schools or colleges. 
Hence China never thinks of a progress beyond that attained 
three thousand years since, as its results are taught in the 
colleges now maintained in the large cities. In like manner 
the schools or colleges of the Sottas fix the limit of Moham- 
medan culture. And even under our own civilization a peculiar 
stamp is given to the mmd of the individual student and to the 
conceptions of culture generally entertained, according as the 
prevailing character of the university-education is Christian or 
Rationalistic, is Protestant or Romish. In the university is the 



tountain-heacl, higher thau which the streams will not rise. 
Scholarship means acquiring what is there taught. Learn- 
ing signifies eminent acquisitions in the branches of study 
there recognized. Thus the difference in the universities ot 
various lands marks their standards of scholarly culture, which 
we know to differ precisely in this way, in America, in Great 
Britain, and in Germany. 

jSText we observe, that these crowning institutions of education 
excite the enthusiasm and stir the ambition of the best youthful 

minds among a people. They do a double work of selection 

and of training. The selection is of the natural or Darwinian 
sort. No explorers are sent forth to ascertain who among the 
youth have genius and aspiration, and to invite or command 
their attendance within university walls. It is not as when the 
eye discovers, and the hand grasps, diamonds among pebbles; 
but rather as when the magnet comes in contact with the sand, 
and draws to itself the kindred particles. A university exists 
and does its work in a land, and there are attracted to it, as by 
a necessity of their nature, the minds that thirst for knowledo-e 
and that aim at the distinctions known to depend upon knowl- 
edge. It is in this well-known effect, of suggestion and in- 
spiration, that at least a partial compensation has been found 
for the unwise multiplication of colleges in our land. They 
have doubled the number of those who otherwise would have 
sought a liberal education. By them the appeal in favor of learn- 
ing has been brought home to every considerable community 
urban or rural, by the impressiveness of the buildings, by the 
sight of the professors and students, by the new topics of con- 
versation and discussion, and by the influence of the commence- 
ment occasions and of other public literary exercises. Each has 
interested a wide circle of friends, on local, reformatory, or de- 
nominational grounds, has secured endowed scholarships, and 
has carried the inspiring idea of a possible liberal education 
down among the people and before the mind of every mechanic's 
and farmer's boy. Hence come deep and unexpected thoughts 
the kindling of noble ambitions, and the rousing of latent 



powers, resulting in heroic, self-denying effort and triumphant 
accomplishment. 

In these institutions also is gained the needed preparation for 
achieving the highest results in each grand department of life 
and work. The preparation is botli specific and general. The 
university-education, in the American form, fits specifically for 
each calling of civilized life in which knowledge and culture 
and professional acquirements are the conditions of success. 
To enumerate such departments as the Classical and Scientific 
Courses, and those of Theology, Philosophy, Medicine, Law 
and Art, is to represent the leading forces in the politics, 
literature, religion, science and industry of the world. Hence 
from the universities will largely come the erudite scholars, the 
eminent authors, the explorers and discoverers in new fields of 
thought, the able and accomplished editors, the broad-minded 
statesmen, the skillful physicians and surgeons, the able in- 
structors, the eloquent preachers, the competent advocates and 
judges. Such must have the advantages which a university 
offers, would they attain to the highest success and fill the 
entire circle of their responsibilities; for thus alone can they 
be thoroughly grounded in the principles and details of their 
respective professions. 

But the general preparation is equally important, as found in 
the severe intellectual discipline and in the broad literary cul- 
ture which result from the university-training, and which, aside 
from professional details, aflord that grasp of mind, solidity of 
judgment, readiness of faculty, concentration of thought, free- 
dom from prejudice, and love of truth and beauty, which fit a 
man for all possible work. This is the result usually least ap- 
preciated, and yet widest in its bearings. Lord Macaulay gave 
an admirable illustration of its practical bearings, in his dis- 
cussion of Civil Service Reform, and of Competitive Examina- 
tions. In his report he said: 

" Skill in Greek and Latin versification has, indeed, no direct tendency to 
form a judge, a financier, or a diplomatist ; but the youth who does best what 
all the ablest and most ambitious youths about him are trying to do well, Avill 
generally prove a superior man : nor can we doubt that an accomplishment by 



9 

whicli Fox and Canuiug, Grreenville and Wellesley, Mansfield and Tenterden 
first distinguished themselves above their fellows indicates powers of mind 
which, properly trained and. directed, may do great service to the State." 

So important is his testimony as to the practical character of 
a liberal education in iitting for official duties of every kind, 
that I venture on more extended extracts from his speech in 
1833 on East India Company's Charter Bill: 

" It is proposed that for every vacancy in the civil service four candidates 
shall be named, and the candidate elected by examination, We conceive that 
under this systeui the persons sent out will be young men above par— young 
men superior either in talents or in diligence to the mass. It is said, I know, 
that examinations in Latin, in Greek, and in mathematics are no tests of what 
men will prove to be in life. I am perfectly aware that they are not infallible 
tests, but that they are tests 1 confidently maintain. Look at every walk of 
life — at this house: at the other house ; at the bar ; at the bench; at the church 
— and see whether it be not true that those who attain high distinction iu the 
world are generally men who are distinguished in their academic career. In- 
deed, sir, this objection would prove far too much, even for those who use it. 
It would prove that there is no use at all iu education. Why should we put 
boys out of their way ? Why should we force a lad, who would much rather 
fly a kite or trundle a hoop, to learn his Latin grammar ? Why should we keep 
a young man to his Thncydides or his Laplace, when he would rather be shoot- 
ing ? Education would be mere useless torture if, at two or three and twenty, 
a man who has neglected his studies weie exactly on a par with a man who has 
applied himself to them — exactly or likely to perform all the offices of public 
life with credit to himself and with advantage to society. Whether the English 
system of education be good or bad is not now the question. Perhaps I may 
think that too much time is giv(3n to the ancient languages and to the abstract 
sciences. But what then ? Whatever be the languages, whatever be the 
sciences which it is in any age and country the fashion to teach, those who be- 
come the greatest proficients in those languages and those sciences will generally 
be the flower of the youth— the most acute, the most industrious, the most am- 
bitious of honorable distinctions. If the Ptolemaic system were taught at 
Cambridge instead of the Newtonian, the ' Senior Wrangler ' would nevertheless 
be in general a superior man to the ' Wooden Spoon.' If instead of learning 
Greek, we learned the Cherokee, the man Avho understood the Cherokee best, 
who made the most correct and melodious Cherokee verses, who comprehended 
most accurately the effect of the Cherokee particles, would generally be a 
superior man to him who was destitute of these accomplishments. If Astrology 
were taught at our universities, the yonng man who cast nativities best would 
generally turn out a superior man. If Alchemy were taught, the young man 
Avho showed the most activity in the pursuit of the philosopher's stone would 
generally turn out a superior man," — Speeches I, 267, 4''c. 

These are not only the words of a scholar and a statesman, 

but they appeal to the common sense of every man. 

Further, it should be considered that the university-influence 

ultimately tends to elevate the ideas and guide the action of 
2 



10 

the mass of the people. Thought is like water, which spreads 
in. every direction upon the earth, sinks into every crevice of 
the rock, and even moistens the air above. The ideas of the 
university color, in time, the thinking of the masses. Thus, 
recently in Germany and France, during an age of scholarly 
unbelief, skepticism and rationalism have come to leaven the 
entire nation. Materialism in the philosopher issues as Com- 
munism m the citizen. But if error in such institutions proves 
pervasive, so does truth; and the reason that, in our own land, 
the popular mind thus far has sustained evangelical religion, 
and also, on the whole, wise and righteous measures of civil 
government, is found in the extent of liberal education from 
the beginning, by which a high average intelligence has been 
preserved. Out of the university come the superior teachers 
for the various grades of schools, as also the leaders of thought 
and action around whom the people rally, in Church and in 
State. For in both of these relations the people will have leaders; 
and if these cannot be provided through educated men in the 
various professions and business callings, they will be found in 
ignorant and ambitious men among themselves, or in the un- 
scrupulous demagogues of a class slightly above them. A 
thoughtful observer must have felt, during the recent strikes 
and riots, that one great need of working men is, to be kept in 
contact with the intelligence and virtue of the upper classes, to 
partake of their ideas and principles, and to receive leaders of 
more honesty and wisdom, who shall have a conception of the 
solidarity of interests in a community. It requires intelligence 
to have, in the proper sense of the word, a commonwealth; for 
unity of aim and effort is always made impossible by ignorance, 
which, in its suspicion and fear, in its narrow vision and sudden 
impulse, fails to recognize those great principles which necessitate 
common action, and those true friends who seek broad results 
and a permanent welfare. 

But it is time for me to pass from these general considera- 
tions to their more particular connection with the occasion 
which has convened this intelligent audience. 

Howard University has, in one respect, but a slender claim 



11 

to represent the fact and influence of Universitj-Edacatioa. 
Being at the beginning of its career, with resources confessedly 
small, pecuniarly and otherwise, an unfriendly critic might 
suggest that, as with many other American institutions, its 
name is the grandest thing about it. Doubtless, also, others, 
who look with a prejudiced eye upon its thoroughly democratic 
basis of giving equal educational advantages to all, irrespective 
(<f race or sex, and its special encouragement of the race which 
hitherto has been largely excluded from literary institutions, 
wnll indulge in a sneer of contempt for its object, or in an ex- 
clamation of incredulity as to its success. ISTevertheless it pro- 
poses to bear its part in the noble work of human elevation, 
which has been briefly outlined, and its friends have faith to 
believe that its object will justify itself to every patriot and 
Christian. Howard University is a child of Providence, and an 
heir of the new future, born out of the great civil war, which, 
in saving the National Union, gave freedom to four millions of 
slaves. That, be it remembered, was an emancipation of four 
millions of minds, as well as of so many bodies. The greatest 
crime of slavery was its virtual annihilation of the minds of its 
victims. Hence, freedom instantly created a demand for an 
immense addition to the educational instrumentalities of the 
land, of every grade — for the common school, the high school, 
the college, a,nd the professional seminary ; that the new citizens 
might be fitted to assume their responsible position, and to fill 
every post to which they might be called, from the lowest to 
the highest. With a wise forecast it was determined to locate 
at the JSTation's Capital a University, which should be open, in 
all departments, to young men and young women of every race 
and color, upon equal terms. For what has learning to do with 
distinctions of race or complexion ? Is knowledge Caucasian, or 
Mongolian, or African ? Is literature white, red, yellow, or black? 
Surely science, as such, has to do with mind, not with varieties 
of race; with man, not merely with the white man. Every 
true friend of learning takes as his motto that famous sentiment 
of the ancient poet, Terence, who was by birth an African and 
by position a freedman : "Hom.o sum, et nil humani a me alienum. 



12 

puto"" — " I am a man, and count nothing that is human foreign 
to me." In this spirit Howard Universit}^ opens its doors to all 
comers who thirst for knowledge. And if Dartmouth College, 
now of honorable and wide repute, began but as a humble school 
for the North American Indian, there may be a glorious future 
for this institution, which, excluding none, yet has a word of 
special encouragement for the non-Caucasian races. The value 
of such an institution in aiding to solve a national problem, and 
to meet the pressing wants of millions hitherto in the most de- 
pressed condition of humanity, will be more evident if we bear 
in mind certain considerations which often are overlooked. 

First of all, it must never be forgotten by. the colored people, 
or by their friends, that they can be elevated upon no principles 
and by no instrumentalities other than those which apply to man- 
kind in general. As "there is no royal road to learning" to 
suit dullards of kingly birth, so no peculiar and accommodating 
pathway to wealth and power, to civilization and culture, opens 
before those of African descent. Their own expectations and 
the efforts of those who would assist them must be based simply 
on their manhood. It is only as this shall be developed and 
brought to bear upon life's duties and opportunities, that 
progress can be made in outward condition and in the estima- 
tion of mankind. There are no sudden results to be secured 
by artificial means. Neither special legislation, nor military 
protection, nor favor extended by those in power, nor the 
peculiar regard and eftbrt of philanthropists will, of themselves, 
avail to procure the abolition of caste-feeling, and the elevation 
of the colored people to an entire equality with the whites. 
The effects of ages of slavery are not to be removed in a day, 
by a mere legislative vote. An amendment to the Constitution 
alters no fact of ignorance, of poverty, of moral debasement. 
The prejudices of the whites, descending through generations, 
imbibed by individuals in infancy and strengthened by uni- 
versal sentiment, practice, and association of ideas, cannot be 
easily and soon overcome, and are not, so far as feeling is con- 
cerned, wholly within the power of volition, so as to be anni- 
hilated at will. They will vanish gradually in the presence of 



13 

inereasiDg evidence of a noble manhood. Developed intel- 
lectual power, the higher education, success in industrial pur- 
suits, the acquirement of wealth and culture and character, will 
cause it to disappear as the sun does the heavy, chilly, obscuring 
mists which night generates in the valleys. When I deposit a 
gold coin on the table, it commands a certain degree of respect. 
No one is obliged to argue in its behalf. It speaks for itself. 
Having intrinsic value and the added stamp of the national 
mint, it represents so many grains of precious metal and their 
equivalent in whatever money will buy. Hence everj^body 
welcomes it, and looks upon it with regard. Will the result 
not be analogous, when the colored man shall be seen to have 
an intrinsic value equal to that of the white man ? When one 
shall no longer associate with him the ideas of bondage, 
pauperism, and barbarism, but those of freedom, prosperity, in- 
telligence, and culture? When he shall not only carry in his 
person the stamp of American citizenship, but shall come out 
from a university-training a scholar and a gentleman, like a 
glittering coin from the die ? 

But in securing this result, so diihcult and yet so essential, the 
process must be such as to throw the colored man under every 
possible quickening influence. Hence it is not best to separate 
him carefully from his white brother, and to raise him in an 
institution by himself, like a tender plant in a hothouse. He 
needs the contact with the more advanced race. The 
acknowledgment of his manhood thus given will add to his 
self-respect, and will tire his nobler ambitions, while the white 
man will be essentially benefitted by layin gaside his unrepub- 
lican and unchristian caste-feeling, and coming into sympathy 
with Burns's immortal declaration, which is true as regards the 
color of the skin, as well as of poverty, that 

" A man 's a mau for a' that ! " 

Colored youth educated wholly apart from the whites lose the 
stimulus of the competition which they need to have; for it is 
well known that the progress of a scholar depends upon his 
classmates as well as upon his teacher. An ea<>;er, industrious, 



14 

ambitious, and able class will tone up every mind wbich is in 
it, while a set of dull, apathetic, slothful students will hanoj as 
a dead weight upon each individual associated with them. 
Hence it is not so important to have institutions of learning 
expressly for the colored race, as it is to have those which are 
open to them ou equal terms with otliers. And such is the 
true character of Howard University, the charter of whicb 
makes no allusion to race or color, but simply says that there 
"is hereby established, in the District of Columbia, a University 
for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences, under 
the name, style, and title of 'Howard University.' " There is 
therefore no charter-hindrance to its developing into a truly 
grand National University, filled with students from all parts 
of our widely-extended country, and drawn from all the races 
which compose its varied population. For when the United 
States made over to the University property of great value, the 
Trustees properly pledged the institution never to make any 
distinction, in its treatment of students, based upon race, color, 
or previous condition of bondage. It can never, therefore, pro- 
scribe a man because he is white, or because he is black ; because 
he was descended from Shem, or from Ham, or from Japheth ; 
because he was born a king or a slave. And already not a 
few students of Anglo-Saxon blood, have availed themselves of 
its privileges, while the North American Indian, the Chinese, 
the South American, and the Greek have here joined the Negro 
in the zealous pursuit of knowledge. In one department (the 
Medical) for several years the majority of the students have 
been white. By such a proper recognition of the colored man 
in the higher branches of learning, and his consequent necessity 
of competition with those whom he aspires to equal, there will 
be secured for him a rapid elevation in intellect and character. 
Every case which is at all parallel, confirms the validity of 
our reasoning. The classical scholar will, perhaps, remember 
that Cicero, in writing to one of his friends, advises him, when 
he has occasion to purchase a slave, not to buy one of those stupid 
Britons. Doubtless, after the Roman wars in Britain, thousands 
of captives had been sent to Italy and exposed for sale, accord- 



15 

ing to ancient custom ; and those who bought them had learned 
that they were intellectually inferior to slaves obtained from 
other sources. Why does a Briton no longer bear such a repu- 
tation ? Because generations of favorable influences have 
brought him out of the barbaric condition in which he then was, 
and have educated him into the representative of civilization. 
Take the case of the Jew, who, in the middle ages, and even till 
within a century, was regarded with universal odium through- 
out Christendom, was excluded from society, wns compelled to 
live in a separate part of every European city, and was insulted 
on the street with impunity by any vulgar ruffian. Why has 
he now almost universal recognition, on an equality with his 
Gentile brethren ? Because he has not only acquired wealth, 
but has displayed ability in every department of human 
achievement; because he has furnished Europe with leaders in 
philosophy, in history, in philology, in statesmanship, and in 
arts. A modified illustration may even be drawn from the 
feelings entertained towards certain classes of immigrants in 
this country. In every land a foreigner is viewed with a 
measure of disfavor ; but for a long time the American popular 
feeling was one of special aversion towards ttie immigrant 
Irish and Germans. The mass of them were of the lower 
classes, and in their poverty, coarseness, and ignorance seemed 
below the average American. But since the educated classes 
have arrived, and since the children of the earlier comers 
have been to the common schools, and have risen, in many 
cases, to wealth and to political position, the current of opinion 
and feeling has rapidly changed, and one less often hears 
contemptuous references to " the Irish " and " the Dutch." 
There can be no reasonable doubt, then, that educational 
forces, rightly brought to bear upon tlie colored people, will 
in time work a change in the matter of prejudice; which is only 
partially an incident of difference of feature and complexion, 
and is principally a manifestation of caste-pride. 

And here the privileges of a university-training will show- 
marked results, not only in individuals, but also in the general 
mass. For, in order to such a result, all classes of men need 



16 

appropriate leaders, who shall honorably represent them before 
others, and who, possessing tlieir confidence, shall wisely guide 
their aims and efforts in every department of action. The mass 
of men must and will have leaders. They are gregarious by 
instinct, and they have not the intelligence to judge and act 
independently. The ignorant become the victims of ambitious, 
self-sufBcient and incompetent, even if well-meaning leaders. 
It is the case of the blind leading the blind, with the proverbial 
result. They also fall an easy prey to designing and hypocritical 
demagogues, who flatter their vanity, work upon their fears, 
feed their hopes, appeal to their unenlightened prejudices, and 
use them as tools with which to work out personal and selfish 
ends. He must have been a superficial student of human nature 
in general, and an unsophisticated admirer of negro character 
in particular, who can persuade himself that the ignorant and 
unexperienced freedmen of our Southern States have not suf- 
fered extensively in these very ways. Only a perpetual miracle 
could have preserved them. Beyond question they have often 
been deceived and led astray, religiously and politically,, by 
white men and by those of their own race, who abused their 
confidence. It is no more certain that emancipation carried to 
the South a large body of self-denying Christians and philan- 
thropists, anxious to instruct and elevate the freedmen, and 
who had their true interests at heart, than it is that there wont 
thither also ambitious and unscrupulous adventurers, who cared 
for the colored race only as some northern politicians care for 
the Irish, courting them to obtain their votes and to use them as 
tools for selfish and corrupt ends. It is this fact, with its natural 
results, which occasions such a malignant utterance as that which 
the newspapers ascribe to Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, who is repre- 
sented as recently saying of the colored people: " They are to be 
governed as every race of paupers are governed — by those who 
own the property and give them bread, and just the same as 
the red man is governed. No inferior man, no man without 
civilization, has a chance in this race, and I want to save this 
people from their worst fortunes in the contest. As his friends 
tried to control him by force and by fraud, we will control him 
by fraud and force, to prevent him from bringing ruin to us." 



17 

If the colored people remain in ignorance, poverty, and degra- 
dation, and thus become the natural prey of false friends and 
open enemies, what can prevent the sentiment of Mr. Toombs 
from becoming general ? The only certain corrective for this 
evil is general and special education, which shall raise the 
average intelligence of the masses, so as to make them more 
capable and independent in their judgments of men and 
measures, and which shall also provide appropriate leaders 
worthy of their confidence from among themselves. These 
leaders must be such as naturally come to the front in 
organized and cultivated society — the men in all professions 
and pursuits who to native talent add superior education. 
There must be a speedy addition of cultivated mind to the 
colored population if it is to be saved from follies which will be 
fatal. That grade of mind must operate not only directly and 
purposely through public addresses and by the press, but in all 
those quiet, incidental, and unconscious ways of daily and hourly 
intercourse, which are equally or even more etiective. Hence 
we must have colored lawyers, physicians, editors, authors, 
clergymen, artists, statesmen, and teachers, whose attainments 
shall be equal to those of white men in similar occupations, and 
whose expressed opinions shall have just weight with their race 
on the various mooted questions which may arise in Church 
and State. 

But, as the Theological Department of our University em- 
phatically intimates, we include the religious among the most 
powerful and necessary of the educational forces needed to 
elevate a depressed race. And herein is our advantage over 
any university supported and controlled by the civil State ; 
which is not only precluded from having a department of 
theology, but is much fettered in its attempt to recognize and 
use the Christian religion. Howard University seeks to imbue 
its students with the principles of the gospel, and to surround 
them continually with a Christian atmosphere; believing that 
there can be no genuine success which does not include char- 
acter, and that there is no such power to regenerate character 
as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else so purifies the 
motives as well as the life, presents so high an ideal, and de- 



18 

velops such a sense of responsibility for maldng the most of a 
man, for his own sake and that of the world. We attach a 
special importance to the Theological Department, therefore, be- 
cause the colored people need an educated ministry, to deliver 
them from degrading superstitions, to preserve the more in- 
telligent from the errors of infidelity, and to furnish all their 
communities with those who shall favor genuine progress in 
whatever tends to the elevation of their race. As the institution 
receives aid and students from all denominations of Protestant 
Christians, this department is conducted in the way of genuine 
catholicity. Four denominations are represented in its Faculty, 
and it is under the special supervision and care of the Presby- 
tery of Washington and the American Missionary Association 
at New York, who unitedly provide the instructions and the 
pecuniary support. Prominence will be given, in the instruction, 
principally to the doctrines common to evangelical Christianity, 
rather than to the peculiar tenets of the rival sects; which latter 
are viewed historically and descriptively rather than for polemic 
purposes. Here the friends of the freedmen may unite on a 
broad Christian ground, above the contentions of party zealots, 
to secure for the best minds a liberal training which yet shall 
be true to the positive teaching of the New Testament. And 
we lay the greater stress on this feature, because the chief foes 
of our evangelical faith, at the present time, among the freed- 
men, as elsewhere, are Romanism and Skepticism; against both 
of which it becomes Protestant Christians to stand in solid 
phalanx rather than in divided companies. 

It may be appropriate here to state, for the information of 
the public, that Howard University has now in operation, pre- 
pared to receive students, these several departments; 

I, The Academic, which includes five courses of study, from 
that of the elementary English branches to the usual Classical 
College course. 

n. The Medical, with a large and finely equipped building, a 
connected hospital of three hundred beds, and an able facult}^ — 
a department having so many professional advantages, that the 
majority of its students are usually white, and the numbers are 
continually increasing. 



19 

III. The Legal. This was last year temporaril}' discontinued, 
owing to various difficulties, personal and pecuniary; but it has 
been reopened this autumn on a small scale, and with hopeful 
indications for the future. 

IV. The Theological, (tf which I have already spoken, and 
where may be found a goodly company of pious men, usually 
of quite mature age, some of whom are already preachers in 
their own denominations, and whose previous advantages have 
been ver^^ small, but who desire to gain what additional knowl- 
edge they may, to fit them to be the religious teachers of their 
race. With their meager previous preparation we cannot usually 
carry tliem through as high and thorough a course as we could 
desire, but we aim to do good work with them so far as their 
limited time and training will allow. 

Through divine favor, the generous and enlightened action 
of the United States Government, and the liberality of the 
Christian public, Howard University has been furnished with 
spacious grounds and numerous buildings, costing over half a 
million of dollars, ample for its purposes for jenrs to come, and 
which not inelegantly crown their commanding site, whence 
the eye takes in a prospect of peculiar beauty, including the 
entire city of Washington. There are, besides, valuable vacant 
lands, adjoining and in other parts of the city, from the sale of 
which the University hopes eventually to secure partial endow- 
ments, but which, in these times of depression, cannot be put 
upon the market. Its productive property affords but a small 
income, insufficient to pay the current expenses on their present 
restricted scale, and requiring to be liberally supplemented by the 
gifts of the friends of the institution. It has also no permanent 
scholarships for the aid of indigent students, but is compelled to 
rely, for this purpose, upon the annual contributions of the 
charitable. Yet it will be seen that such broad and deep 
foundations have been laid, as to make it safe and wise for the 
benevolent and patriotic to build largely upon them in the 
future. It was the misfortune of the University to commence 
when the country was in the intoxication of supposed wealth, 
when large plans were laid and corresponding expenses were 



20 

incurred, when not only was the present used, but also the 
future was discounted, and debts were everywhere the order 
of the day; and also when the enthusiasm for the elevation of 
the negro was at its height, immediately upon the close of the 
war. It has consequent!}' shared in the reverses of the times, 
while a partial reaction has t..ken place in the feelings of the 
North with, respect to the freedmen, and it has had also the in- 
ternal changes of administration which accompany fluctuating 
fortunes. But its friends now feel that the tide is to turn once 
more in its favor. The floating debt of over one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, of three years since, has been entirely discharged, 
and the only permanent debt on its valuable property is one of 
eleven thousand dollars. There is reason to believe that it will 
soon begin to share in the large benefactions of living philan- 
thropists and Christians, and that it wall be liberally remembered 
in the wills of those who may be desirous of leaving behind, at 
their death, a perpetual fountain of blessing for coming gener- 
ations. 

In closing, the speaker may be permitted a few words persona! 
to himself. In the latter part of a life which has always devoted 
a large share of thought and action to the welfare of the colored 
race, he iinds himself called, in the providence of God, to pre- 
side over the interests of this rising and important institution, 
of whose object and resources he has been speaking. He is 
conscious how inadequate are his powers and various attain- 
ments to the full discharge of the duties of this position, and it 
is therefore with humility rather than with pride that he enters 
upon them. His trust is in the kind indulgence and active co- 
operation of those who shall be associated with him in the various 
departments of instruction and in the Board of Trustees, while 
above all he would crave tlie blessing of that God whose is all 
truth, in every department of learning; who delights in the 
progress of his rational creatures in knowledge and holiness; 
who is ruling this world in the interests of the kingdom of his 
Son, Jesus Christ; who, for some great purpose, has brought out 
of bondage the millions of the freedmen; and who, for a coinci- 
dent end has established Howard University! 



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